Supplier Quality and Reliability Engineer — Refractory Metals Manufacturing

A day in the life

Sunrise in Franklin, USA. You start by opening the latest supplier scorecards—on-time delivery and defect metrics from our Critical External Providers (CEPs). You brief Operations on trends, align on immediate containment where needed, and kick off an 8D to get to true root cause. Mid-morning, you’re mapping a supplier’s process in Visio, planning an on-site audit to evaluate capability and risks to supply continuity. After lunch, you log a nonconformance in the SAP Q2 notification system and shepherd corrective actions through closure. You wrap the day preparing for a customer audit while coaching a cross-functional team on PFMEA and control charts.

Where you’ll do it

Join Plansee’s Franklin site—where semi-finished molybdenum and tungsten are turned into precise, high-performance components. You’ll be part of a passionate global group spanning 50 countries, combining local know-how with the values and technical depth of the Plansee Group.

What you’ll own

• Lead cross-functional investigations to troubleshoot product and production issues; drive effective corrective and preventive actions, solutions, and sustained improvements.
• Partner with Operations to define and deploy quality standards and control systems; monitor and analyze quality performance to elevate process capability.
• Collaborate with Purchasing to compile and circulate quarterly CEP scorecards for quality and on-time delivery, ensuring transparent performance management.
• Co-own CEP qualification with Purchasing, maintaining the critical supplier list and documentation that proves qualification status.
• Plan, schedule, and perform capability and risk-focused audits of prospective and existing CEPs and their quality systems/operations to protect supply chain integrity.
• Build and execute corrective action and improvement plans to raise critical supplier performance, mitigate risks, and surface opportunities quickly.
• Manage external provider nonconformances via the SAP Q2 notification workflow through to verified effectiveness.
• Participate in internal process-based audits as well as customer, external, and third‑party assessments.

What you bring

• Bachelor’s in engineering with 2–5 years of experience, or an Associate’s with 8–10 years leading product/process improvements and supplier relationship management in manufacturing.
• Lead Auditor/CQA/CQE credentials preferred.
• Hands-on experience in ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100:2016 environments, including applying these standards to external provider management.
• Fluency with 8D, 5-Why, Ishikawa (fishbone), control and Pareto charts, SPC, and PFMEA (pFEMA), plus Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen, and 5S.
• Risk management savvy—plan risk responses, embed them in the QMS, and validate effectiveness.
• Clear communicator and collaborator across all organizational levels; strong presentation and writing skills.
• MS Office and process modeling/visualization tools (e.g., Visio); SAP R/3 experience is a plus.
• Familiarity with ITAR and EAR compliance.
• Willingness to travel up to 25% domestically and internationally.

Compensation

Base pay: $75,000–$95,000 per year, commensurate with experience and skills. This role also participates in a bonus program.